NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-04-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

NPR News: 11-04-2025 10AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. It's Election Day across the country. Voters in many states are selecting candidates for office. California voters are deciding whether to approve new congressional maps. These are aimed at giving Democrats five more seats in Congress. For member station KQED, Marisa Lagos, has more. Governor Gavin Newsom helped put Proposition 50 on the ballot in August after President Donald Trump set off a mid-decade redistricting fight

by demanding Texas redraw its maps to help the GOP maintain control of the House in 2026. On Monday, Newsom gathered at a San Francisco Union Hall with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to rally and phone bank for the measure, which he says came as a surprise to Republicans. They thought we were going to write an op-bag, have a candle-eye visual, maybe do a rally. They poked the bear, and the bear is poking back. If approved California's ballot measure would temporarily sideline. the congressional maps created by an independent redistricting commission just a few years ago. For NPR News, I'm Marisa Lagos in San Francisco.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died of pneumonia and heart and vascular disease, according to a family statement. He was 84 years old. Cheney served in Congress and in several roles for different presidents. He completed two terms as vice president under former President George W. Bush. The federal government shutdown is now 35 days old. It's caused causing delays in funding for food assistance. It's also forcing the closure of some of the federal early learning programs for low-income families known as Head Start. Ohio resident Trista Ball has a six-year-old son enrolled, but she says her Head Start program has been suspended. His dad watches during the day, which is starting to become really hard. He works from like 9 p.m. until 6 in the morning,

and then he watches jail all day, which is not good, I feel like, for either of them. Head Start serves three quarters of a billion low-income American children. Stocks opened sharply lower this morning as Starbucks announced plans to sell a big chunk of its China business. NPR Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 170 points. Starbucks is selling 60% of its China operations to a local investment firm in exchange for $4 billion. Starbucks first started doing business in the traditional tea drinking company, almost 30 years ago and now has nearly 8,000 stores in China. The companies face growing competition from home-grown rivals selling cheaper coffee.

Asian stocks were down overnight. Norway's sovereign wealth fund says we'll vote no this week on a proposed compensation package for Tesla's CEO that could pay Elon Musk as much as a trillion dollars over a decade. The fund is one of Tesla's biggest institutional shareholders with a stake worth a little over 1%. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. Street, the Dow is now down 180 points. The NASDAQ is down 200. This is NPR. The government of Jamaica has increased its death toll from last week's hurricane to at least 32 people. Hurricane Melissa crashed into the Caribbean island a week ago. The U.S. Special Advisor for African Affairs

says the U.S. is working with both sides of Sudan's civil war to bring about a ceasefire. He says he could have an announcement soon. This comes amid Sudan's worst humanitarian crisis. And Pierre's Emmanuel Akunwatu reports, famine has spread to two regions of the country. Massad Bulos told the AP that talks between the Sudanese army and the rapid support forces have been on for the last 10 days. And if concluded, the U.S. plan would start with a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a political process. Previous ceasefire agreements between the two sides have failed to hold. According to the UN, the famine in Sudan is the worst anywhere in the world for decades. Hunger experts say it is spreading in two areas, including the city of

a fashir that was under an 18-month siege by the RSF. Since the takeover, thousands of trapped civilians have been targeted by a wave of killings and atrocities that the international community has widely condemned. Emmanuel Akimoto, NPR News, Lagos. Philanthropist McKenzie Scott is donating $80 million to Howard University in Washington, D.C. Howard is a historically black college and is the latest to benefit from Scott's gifts. Another gift this week of $38 million will go to Spelman College and all women's historically black college. Scott is the former spouse of Jeff Bezos and help create big tech company, Amazon. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News in Washington. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a prime membership or any podcast app by

subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at Plus. npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.